


Missing Morals

by Fangirlwriting



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Little Shit, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders is a Little Shit, Deceit | Janus Sanders-centric, Falling In Love, Gift Fic, Logan is the Only Helpful One, M/M, Missing Persons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:53:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28290441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlwriting/pseuds/Fangirlwriting
Summary: Janus has decided that Patton going missing is most definitely a problem.  After all, who knows what it could do to Thomas?  Yeah, that's it.  That's the only reason he's worried.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Comments: 13
Kudos: 67





	Missing Morals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VorpalGirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VorpalGirl/gifts).



> I was in a server gift exchange this year, and the prompt I got for VorpalGirl had quite a few options, but one of them that caught my eye was "lost in the subconscious/unconscious," and since I already had the beginnings of an idea for that story with Moceit, that was the one I went with. Hope you enjoy!

Nothing felt particularly different when Janus woke up that morning. That might have been because he had no reason to expect that anything would, but normally, when something was wrong there was a feeling in the air. Virgil might have been more in tune to that than he was, come to think of it, but he could still usually tell when something felt off.

Regardless, Janus was either too tired or too excited to feel anything off that morning. He didn’t exactly blame himself for this. Could anyone blame him, after what had happened recently? The exhilaration that came with being (at least somewhat) accepted by Thomas, and the leftover nerves from telling Thomas his name, was it all that surprising that he wasn’t focusing much on the feel of the morning?

The first sign he got that something was amiss came while he was making breakfast. He was finishing omelets for himself and Remus (his with cheese and ham and Remus’ with screws and shampoo) when very suddenly, he got the sense that someone was rising up behind him. He turned as quickly as he could without seeming nervous to see Logan.

“Hello,” Janus said, furrowing his brow slightly. “Can I help you?”

“Perhaps,” Logan said. Janus didn’t miss the nerves in his voice, no matter how much Logan tried to hide it, and raised his eyebrow. “Have you seen Patton recently?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I have not seen Patton ever in my life,” Janus said.

Logan looked up slightly in exasperation. “Since yesterday?”

Janus tipped his head curiously. “Is he not making breakfast? Is that not what he does for the three of you in the morning?”

“I haven’t seen him since after the video yesterday,” Logan said, seeming to grow more concerned. “I believe he went to check on Roman and never returned.”

“Well, then it seems the logical next step would be to ask Roman,” Janus said. “Why are you here?”

“Because Roman never saw him.”

Janus raised an eyebrow. “Ah.”

“Wait, Sugar Daddy is missing?” Remus called as he swung himself around into the kitchen, using the wall as a brace that he ended up leaning on. “Do you think he’s dead?”

“He isn’t,” Logan said with certainty.

“Aww!”

“Thomas says his presence is muted but he can still feel him,” Logan continued by way of explanation. “So Patton cannot be gone in any permanent way.”

“Hmm. Well, he’s not here,” Janus said, turning back to the stove and taking off Remus’ omelette. “Here you go, Remus, if you break your teeth again you better fix them.”

“Oooo, you made it with screws?!” Remus cried happily, not waiting for an answer as he snatched up the omelette and sprinted from the kitchen to who-knows where.

“I hope you find Patton,” Janus called to Logan, putting his own omelette on a plate.

“I hope so too,” Logan muttered, still sounding uncharacteristically nervous as he sunk out. Janus didn’t give it much more thought for the moment, instead just sitting down to eat. Patton had probably just gotten busy re-organizing his stuffed animals. It would be fine.

…

When Janus first started thinking that maybe something was actually wrong, it was that night. He’d assumed Patton would have been found by then, and everyone would have written off the misunderstanding as a silly thing to get upset over.

Instead, Janus and Remus were both summoned to the light side’s kitchen in the middle of dinner.

Remus immediately started grinning at the dirty dishes in the sink, and Janus caught him by the arm before he could go start licking them. “Well, this isn’t a surprise at all,” he said as he pulled Remus closer to his side so he could hold on tighter. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

No one replied at first, and he took a minute to look around the room and notice the state of everyone. Virgil was perched on the counter looking determinedly away like he very much did not want either of them to be there. Roman was leaning against the doorframe and seemed to be in a similar emotional state to Virgil. Logan was the only one actually looking directly at the two of them, looking obviously more distressed than the last time Janus had seen him. And they were the only three there.

“Ah,” Janus said. “I assume Patton is still absent?”

“Indeed,” Logan said with a nod. “We just wanted to confirm that you hadn’t seen him in our absence?”

“Nope!” Remus called. “But I’ll let you know if I slaughter him—” Janus elbowed him. “—spy him!”

“I’m sure Patton just got busy reorganizing his photo collection or something,” Janus said. “You know what a mess his room is. He’ll probably turn up by tomorrow.” And before Roman could snap something about how that’s exactly what a liar would say or Virgil could yell something about him ignoring their concerns, Janus took Remus by the arm again and sunk them both back down to their own commons.

“Wow, how rude was that?” Remus said, sitting down in his chair again. “We were in the middle of eating.”

Janus made some kind of small noise of agreement, but in reality was still thinking. They really hadn’t found Patton by now? He was sure they would have.

Not that he was concerned, of course not. Patton was little more than an obstacle to overcome in order to help Thomas, but the light sides did care for him quite a bit.

Hmm… perhaps he could use this situation to his advantage.

So the following morning, Janus appeared in the light side commons early in the morning, put on his best concerned face (which was easier to do than he thought, hmm), and headed for the kitchen, where he found Virgil, Logan, and Roman all sitting and looking more than a little tense.

“Still no sign of Patton, I presume?” he asked.

Virgil glared over at him. “What do you care?” he snapped.

“Well, Patton is an essential part to Thomas,” Janus said, shifting so he could stand up straighter. “And you all seem to care very much for him.”

“Oh, and so you’re so concerned out of love for everyone else,” Virgil grumbled, sounding very done with this. “Get out.”

“I am concerned because it is concerning,” Janus said. “And again, Patton is essential. I’m simply here to offer my services.”

“Uh-huh, sure,” Virgil grumbled, sinking lower in his chair as he glared at him.

“Virgil,” Logan said, laying a hand on Virgil’s arm. “We’re going to need all the help we can get.”

Virgil glared away and grumbled something, seeming to agree but not looking at all happy with that fact.

Janus would take what he could get, he supposed.

“Thank you, Janus,” Logan said, looking back over. “We were trying to think of places he might have gone.”

“Where have you looked so far?” Janus asked, moving forward slightly before he was stopped by Virgil hissing. Janus gave him a deadpan look that Virgil held with another glare, and finally, Janus sighed and walked back to lean against the counter.

“We did a thorough search of his room and the rest of the commons. We have been keeping in touch with Thomas, who has been trying to summon him. We know he hasn’t ducked out, as Thomas says he can still sense him to some degree.”

“To some degree?” Janus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Thomas has been… irritable,” Logan said, looking uneasy. “He’s been shorter with people than usual. We think that might be Patton being suppressed in some way.”

Janus nodded slightly. “I see.” He wasn’t quite sure what to think on that front. It would likely be easier to convince Thomas to go after what he wanted with a suppressed morality, but alienating his friends would definitely not make him happy, and it wouldn’t help in the long run, either.

Virgil seemed to pick up on something that he was thinking, because he was glaring at Janus again. “You don’t get to talk to Thomas at least until we find Patton,” he snapped.

“Calm down, Virgil,” Janus said, giving him a look. “I certainly have many plans to try and make Thomas do what I want before we retrieve Patton.”

Virgil gave him a suspicious look but seemed to let that go.

Logan turned back to the other two sides at the table and started suggesting ideas again, but it didn’t look like they were going to get very far. Virgil would spend the rest of the time glaring at Janus like he expected him to suddenly reveal that he was harboring Patton away in his room; Roman spent the rest of the time surprisingly quiet, staring down at the table and pushing a pencil back and forth with intensity.

It took about ten more minutes for Logan to give up and say that they would reconvene in the morning. Janus stared in bafflement as the three sides all sunk out to their respective bedrooms. He sunk out to his own room after a second, trying to sort out the thoughts spinning through his head.

Wow, those three really couldn’t work together on a good day. He would have thought they would at least be willing to put aside their differences to find Patton. Or maybe that was his presence. Well, in an ideal world they would be able to put that aside too.

Patton being missing, in a serious way, was certainly not ideal. Patton had been the only side that was  _ on _ his… side, at the moment. Sure, Logan had seemed to agree with him last time he’d spoken to Thomas, but that was more because he agreed at the time. If Janus made a point he didn’t agree with, it would be very hard to convince Thomas to listen to him with three other sides arguing against him and no one else arguing for him.

And this was  _ definitely _ much less important, but Patton was… nice to have around. He didn’t scream at Janus immediately, or automatically assume he was up to no good. He had before, but since the wedding, he had seemed to be making an effort to be kinder, and it… it didn’t feel horrible. They had baked cookies a couple of times, which had been fun, although Janus had felt ridiculous wearing a frilly apron with hearts on it. They now had a weekly movie night that Patton had set aside solely for “the Dads of the Mindscape.” Janus had never been referred to that way before. (He most certainly despised it.) And although he rarely took up Patton’s offers to cuddle, the hugs were  _ very _ nice.

But that didn’t matter. It was far more important that he find out what Patton being absent would do to Thomas. And he could try and win some of the other sides over by pretending to care very much about getting Patton back for Patton’s sake. That would be easy to do. Patton was very easy to pretend to care about.

He could start tomorrow.

…

Janus quickly picked up on the main reason no progress had been made on finding Patton. No one could agree on anything. He’d known the light sides were going through a rough patch, but this was ridiculous. Logan was brainstorming and trying to go through ideas, and Virgil tried to help but was mostly focused on getting Roman to stop sitting silently nearby and never contributing.

Was this always how Roman got when someone was in danger? Janus had thought he was supposed to be a hero.

Regardless, if he wanted to make progress in regards to finding Patton, he needed to start with these three. Logan seemed like the easiest to approach, so he’d go there first.

He found Logan in the kitchen in front of a corkboard with different notes on it.

“So, Patton went to check on Roman,” Janus said, stepping up beside him.

“Yes, Thomas said that he said he was going to do so when he left,” Logan said, and Janus nodded to confirm that. “But Roman said he never saw him. He said he was in his room until the following morning when I came to tell him Patton was missing, and he didn’t see anyone in between then.”

“So Patton vanished somewhere in between there,” Janus said, looking at the notes Logan had stuck to the board. “Well, that gives us so much to go on. No one else saw him?”

“Virgil was in his room listening to music and I was in my room going over data,” Logan said. “Unless you or Remus saw him, then no one did.”

“Neither of us did,” Janus confirmed. “So you said you think Patton is suppressed in some way.”

Logan nodded. “It would explain Thomas’ behavior as of late. You know quite a bit about how the mindscape functions, correct? Do you know what could cause a side could be suppressed?”

“Well… me,” Janus admitted. “But I wasn’t involved here. They could be trapped somewhere. Has anyone thought to check the subconscious?”

“I did, yesterday,” came a new voice, and both of them turned to see Remus leaning in the doorway. “I mean, I wasn’t looking for Patton specifically, but I was in the subconscious. He wasn’t there.” Remus walked across the kitchen and grabbed a banana, which he started eating without taking the peel off.

“Oh goodness,” Logan said softly, and Janus turned back to him in surprise as he turned to the board again, suddenly looking very concerned. “It’s been several days now, do you think wherever Patton is he has enough to eat?”

“Oh god,” came another new voice, and this time Roman was in the entrance to the kitchen. “I hope so.”

Janus gave him a curious look. That was the first time he’d seen Roman show any kind of concern. Although he supposed wanting someone to have enough food wasn’t exactly a difficult thing to do, even if you didn’t seem generally concerned as a whole.

“And you said you never saw him, right Roman?” Janus asked.

Roman glared at Janus, and his face closed off as he stomped from the room again. Well. There goes that.

“I can’t think of any other ways a side could be suppressed unless they were doing it to themselves, like Virgil did when he ducked out,” Janus said, turning back to Logan. “And that isn’t what happened.”

“Definitely not,” Logan agreed with a nod, turning back to the board. “So Patton has to be trapped somewhere.”

“But where else could he be if not the subconscious?” Janus asked. “I can’t think of anywhere else.”

“It’s pretty easy to get trapped in Virgil’s room,” Remus said casually, hopping up on the counter across the kitchen.

“He’s not in my room.”

Janus turned to the doorway yet again to see Virgil standing there with his arms crossed. “You can  _ tell _ if a side is trapped in your room. If Patton was there we’d know by now.”

“Unless you were lying about it,” Remus said with a grin.

Virgil leveled a death glare at him. “What?”

Remus shrugged. “Just saying.”

Virgil huffed and turned to storm out of the room. Janus hesitated for a second before following. Maybe it was time he tried to have this conversation.

“Virgil?”

“Fuck off!” Virgil called without looking back at him.

_ “Virgil,” _ Janus insisted. “Would you listen to me for two seconds?”

Virgil turned around with yet another glare on his face. “And why should I?”

“Well, certainly not because I’m trying to  _ help, _ like everyone else,” Janus said. “Since it it so unreasonable for me to care about finding Patton.”

“Oh, right, sure you do,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “You’re probably just using that as a cover.”

“Oh, I definitely am,” Janus said instantly, and did an internal double take, because that should have been a lie… or, the truth. This  _ was _ a cover. That was why he was doing this… wasn’t it?

“Bullshit,” Virgil said.

Janus was shaken out of his almost-introspection to glare back at Virgil. “Whether it is or not, I’m definitely not helping,” Janus snapped. “I’m sure it’s impossible to appreciate that for what it is, you know.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“I am so surprised, but that’s besides the point. You all definitely seem to have this under control right now, and you definitely don’t need all the help you can get. I’m also not trying to offer some, so if you wouldn’t mind  _ working with me just a little bit, _ we all might be able to get a lot more done.”

Virgil didn’t stop glaring at him, but he seemed to take a moment to process what Janus was saying, which was progress.

_ Finally, _ Virgil sighed. “Fine. I still don’t trust your motives, but we need help. So if you somehow magically provide that, I’ll listen. Just this once.”

Virgil sunk out before Janus could snap something back.

Janus sighed and sunk out to his own room. He needed some time to think.

So… actually caring about Patton being missing had not been on the agenda. He was supposed to be using this time to win over some of the other sides, he didn’t have time to care about Patton. Sure, last night had been movie night and he his night had felt very empty without it, and he was starting to sorely miss the other side’s positive energy and genuine care for him— seeing as he definitely had quite enough of that— but that didn’t mean he got to just be  _ worried _ and not use this time to forward his agenda.

He could miss Patton, he supposed. That was… fine. But it absolutely could not get in the way of the far more important things he had going on right now, no matter how much he wanted a hug or a movie night.

Okay, so this he could work with. The only problem was that he now had to convince the others to work with him. Logan was being cooperative, Virgil was…  _ sort of _ being cooperative, but Roman wasn’t budging. Granted, pushing him away with a snapback response hours before Patton went missing probably wasn’t the best way to ensure teamwork in a time of crisis. So, the next step was Roman then. A good place to start would probably be an apology.

So Janus found Roman in the kitchen the next morning, while he was making breakfast for everyone else in their side of the mindscape.

“Good morning, Roman.”

“Get out,” Roman snapped without even turning around.

Janus sighed. “Roman, may I please speak to you for a moment?”

“You’re already doing it,” Roman said, turning this time. “And I doubt you would listen if I told you no.”

“Normally I wouldn’t, but this is important,” Janus said.

“Well then spit it out before I run you through with my sword!”

Janus’ eyes widened. Okay, maybe he’d underestimated how angry Roman was.

“I just wanted to apologize, Roman,” Janus said hesitantly.

Roman snorted. “Oh, yes, and you just so conveniently decided to apologize after Patton goes missing,” Roman snapped. “There couldn’t possibly be any other motives at  _ all.” _

Janus didn’t know what to say to that. He was right, after all.

“Just leave me alone, Janus,” Roman said, turning back around.

Janus waited in the doorway for a couple more seconds before he finally sighed, turned around, and left. Maybe it would be best to give Roman some space for now.

…

“Janny,” Remus whined. “Come on, you’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m not fireproof, Remus,” Janus said, as he attempted to move around Remus’ wall of fire again.

“What? Why not? Boring. Come on, I’m hungry.”

“Well, if you want breakfast on time, maybe you should refrain from setting fire to the kitchen.” Janus said calmly. “Or you could always just make me a fire extinguisher instead of making me get the one in there.”

“Ugh,” Remus grumbled, and handed Janus a fire extinguisher. “There.”

Janus pointed the nozzle and sprayed, only for the foam inside to come out bright green. He sighed. At least it put out the fire. “Remus?”

“Yeah?”

“Why does this smell like a garbage truck?”

“Why not?”

“We’re making breakfast in the other’s kitchen.”

“Aww!”

Half an hour later Janus had been screamed at a couple times, but at least he had edible food— well, for him. Remus still wanted his waffles covered in mayonnaise and pieces of tires.

“That is not a healthy breakfast,” Logan said as he walked into the kitchen.

“Thank you for informing me of something I had no knowledge of,” Janus deadpanned.

“You’re welcome,” Logan said, and Janus sighed. “I am baffled as to how you can make that for him and still have an appetite.”

“Years of practice,” Janus said, sitting down at the table with his own waffles with powdered sugar on them.

Logan seemed to accept that as he went to get another cup of coffee, and then left the kitchen, leaving Janus and Remus relatively alone.

“So what’s your plan for today?” Remus asked. “Do you want to join me in setting fire to some more things or are you going to be boring again?”

Janus sighed. “Finding Patton is important, Remus.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. But we’re still watching The Emoji Movie tonight, right?”

Janus was caught between wanting to gag and a weird pinching in his chest at the idea of a movie night. “Yes, alright,” he said with an internal sigh, and Remus grinned, taking another bite of his waffle.

Janus spent most of the day with Logan again going over ideas. Virgil had started to take up the job of freaking Thomas out every time he almost did something too rude, which meant there was a general feeling of too much anxiety around the mindscape. Roman was still being resolute as ever in not helping if Janus was around, so they didn’t see him all day.

Janus finally called it quits at dinner time and made some mini pizzas to take back to their commons. Remus was dangling upside down on the couch, wearing nothing but his boxers (Janus supposed he should be grateful for those), and with the menu already up on the TV.

Janus passed him his anchovies and book pages pizza (Logan had been horrified) and sat down with his own as Remus played the movie.

It took only a couple minutes before Janus’ thoughts started to wander— could you really blame him, they were watching The Emoji Movie. Unfortunately, he couldn’t seem to focus on what was actually important, getting the other sides to listen to him, when his brain kept wandering back to Patton.

He’d watched quite a few philosophical movies with Patton, and to his surprise, Patton had been more than willing to discuss the material involved. They’d had quite a few very intelligent conversations that Janus had loathed. What he wouldn’t give to have one of those right now—

“J-anus?”

Janus started slightly and looked over at Remus who definitely had too much pizza sauce around his mouth.

“What’s up with you?” Remus asked. “You normally love this movie.”

“Um… yes,” Janus said. “I adore it.”

“Are you actually worried about Patton?” Remus asked, and for once, he seemed to actually be surprised and curious.

“I… of course not,” Janus said. “I’m worried about what his absence will do to Thomas.”

Remus gave him a look that told him he definitely wasn’t buying it. “I may not be Roman, but I can still tell when a side is in love, Jan,” he said.

Janus did a double take. “I’m sorry?”

“Yeah, you wanna smash the Hulk,” Remus said, starting to grin in a way Janus was much more used to.

“Remus!” Janus exclaimed.

Remus cackled. “See, you’re just like the parents in this movie!”

“Please don’t compare me to—”

“Patton is the Dad who shows a bunch of feelings and you’re the Mom who says you have so much passionate love for him with a completely straight face.”

“I’m going to bed.”

“Enjoy the wet dreams!”

Janus appeared in his room and tried to shake off the disgust and surprise that came from that interaction.

He wasn’t in love with Patton, that was ridiculous.

He needed to focus on the matter at hand, first of all. He didn’t have time to be in love with Patton. He had to figure out how to get Roman to accept his apology, he had to make sure that Virgil would agree with however he helped, he had to make sure he was updated with everything on Logan’s corkboard.

He was just stressed, he wasn’t in love with Patton. He just… missed him, and his hugs, and his jokes, and their movie nights, and the way he seemed to actually care about him now, and…

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

…

Well, if you want to talk about something not being ideal. At least now he understood why he actually was worried about Patton.

But it didn’t exactly become easier to not focus on that worry when he understood why it was happening. The best he could do was try and focus on getting him back as it began to eat him alive.

Janus tried a couple more times that week to get through to Virgil and Roman, and while Virgil at least hadn’t dismissed him outright, Roman was still refusing to acknowledge him. Janus really wasn’t sure what else to try.

About a week had passed with no sign of Patton when progress was finally made. And as a surprise to just about everyone, it came from Remus.

Janus was sitting at the kitchen table with the rest of the others barring Remus, and they were all staring at the cork board Logan had set up, that they hadn’t made any progress on for days.

It was around then when Remus appeared in the kitchen. “Do you have any raw eggs?” he asked, opening the fridge without looking at any of them.

“You shouldn’t be eating eggs raw, Remus,” Logan said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I’m cooking them in the toilet if I can ever figure out how to boil the water,” Remus said, waving his hand casually as if that explained away all concerns. “Hey, what’s with the doom-and-gloom in here? Has nobody found Heart-On yet?”

“Obviously we haven’t,” Virgil grumbled.

“Hmm,” Remus said, taking the carton of eggs. “Well, if you ever want to check my side of the Imagination, let me know.”

He started for the other room as if that wasn’t a comment that warranted further discussion.

“Hang on, Remus!” Janus snapped, jumping up and grabbing his arm before he could leave. “What do you mean? Can you sense Patton in there?”

“Huh? No,” Remus said, turning around. “But you can’t sense people in the Imagination. It doesn’t work like a room. I just figured eventually you’d wanna check there. Let me know if you do.” With that, he gave a little wave and sunk out.

Everyone in the room spun to face Roman. “Is that right?” Logan asked.

Roman nodded, eyes wide. “But I ruled that out,” he said. “It’s impossible to get lost in my side of the imagination, I put signs everywhere. And I couldn’t think of a reason why Patton would go to Remus’ side.”

Janus was pretty sure he was beginning to realize what was happening. “Roman,” he said quietly. “Are you mad at Patton?”

Roman glared over at him. “Excuse me? I’m more mad at  _ you,  _ you—”

“Yes, I know that,” Janus snapped. “But are you mad at  _ Patton  _ too?”

“I— of course not,” Roman stammered. “Patton— Patton is— why does that matter?”

“Oh heavens,” Janus murmured, turning and sprinting towards Roman’s doors to his half of the imagination. He had no idea if the others put the same thing together, but a couple seconds later he heard three other sets of footsteps running behind him.

Roman clearly had not been in his imagination in quite a bit of time, or he would have brought up the fact that it looked like a nightmare right now. It was stormy and red-tinted, with a crumbling castle in the distance and dragons and crows flying overhead.

“Geez, Ro,” Virgil mumbled. “Do a little redecorating?”

“I didn’t… touch anything,” Roman said faintly.

Janus started for the castle in the distance, as it was probably as good a place to start as any, and everyone else followed without a word. The walk to the castle didn’t take as long as it looked, likely because everything seemed a little surreal in here, similar to how it did in Remus’ side of the imagination, just less… gory.

“Okay, seriously, what’s happening?” Virgil asked as they all the treeline around the castle. “Last time I was in the imagination it wasn’t anything like this.”

“If I had to guess,” Janus said quietly. “It’s shifted to reflect Roman’s emotional state.”

There was a moment where no one said anything. Virgil was the first to speak up once again. “…You okay, Ro?”

“I’m fine,” Roman said instantly.

“If Janus is correct about what is happening, that is a clear falsehood,” Logan said.

“Oh, Janus, Janus!” Roman snapped, and a clap of thunder rang out. “Since when do we listen to him, huh? He’s a snake faced liar!”

“Woah, easy Roman,” Virgil said.

“Oh, what, like you’re his biggest fan?” Roman snapped.

“I’m talking about the clouds, you idiot,” Virgil snapped back.

“Virgil is right,” Logan said. “Roman, you’re clearly upset, and we can talk about that, but right now I would refrain from getting too angry or you could cause something unfortunate.”

Janus pushed aside the last group of trees and stopped walking. “He’s already done that,” he said softly.

“What are you talking about?” Roman snapped, loud enough to almost be shouting.

“Roman?”

Everyone froze. A couple seconds later the three other sides pushed past the treeline to see the castle, and, as Janus had suspected, Patton sitting in an almost cartoonishly large cage in the center of it’s crumbling structure.

Virgil once again reacted first.

“PATTON!” he cried, sprinting from the trees and up to the cage. “Oh my god, you—” He grabbed onto Patton through the bars of the cage and pulled him into a hug. Logan started forward the next second, looking outwardly worried for once. “Oh my god, Patton we were so worried about you, what the hell happened?”

“I— I came to see Roman after the last video,” Patton said, weakly hugging Virgil back. “I thought he would be in here instead of his room.”

“Oh god,” Roman whispered, and Janus immediately whirled to face him. He was holding onto a tree to keep himself upright, and looked like he kind of wanted someone to run him through with his sword.

“Roman,” Janus said. “Roman, this isn’t your fault.”

Roman pressed a hand over his mouth and took a stumbling step backwards.

“Roman—” Janus started, but Roman was already turning and running.

He turned back to face Logan and Virgil, who were both staring at him with wide eyes. The cage around Patton looked like it was already starting to dissolve.

“I have to—” Janus started, and turned to chase after Roman before he finished.

Roman was fast, but unfortunately for him he was also panicky and shaky, and Janus was not. He caught up to him in less than a minute and grabbed him by his sash.

Roman tripped and landed hard on the ground, and seemed to make no effort to try and stand back up again.

“Roman,” Janus said again. “It’s not your fault.”

“I didn’t want to be mad at him,” Roman whispered, sitting up and wrapping his arms around himself. Rain started to fall and quickly picked up, making the ground below them turn into mud. “I didn’t want to be mad so I tried to pretend I wasn’t, but I— I—”

“Roman, you get to be mad,” Janus said firmly. “You can be mad. You have every right to be mad.”

“But Patton—”

“Was trying to cheer you up. He left after the video to cheer you up, and the fact that he ended up in here was just an unfortunate circumstance, and your Imagination was reacting to you like it always does. Understand? It’s not your fault, Roman, it’s just bad luck.”

Roman looked up at Janus, not even trying to hide the tears streaming down his cheeks. “But I— I hurt him,” he whispered. “You— you were right about me, I am the evil twin, I—”

_ “No,” _ Janus insisted. “Roman, that’s enough. I shouldn’t have said that, and I’m sorry I did. You are  _ not _ evil. You are  _ angry, _ and you have a  _ right _ to be angry.”

Roman buried his head in his hands and broke down, and Janus sat down in the mud and pulled Roman in for a hug. Roman didn’t seem to have the energy to even try and fight him, and just buried his head in Janus’ shoulder.

He wasn’t sure quite how long they stayed like that, but eventually Roman pushed away from Janus and stood up. “I’m going to my room,” he said quietly.

“Roman, hang on,” Janus said, standing up too. “Don’t you think Patton—”

“Patton won’t want to see me,” Roman said, and sank out before Janus could say anything else.

Janus stared for a moment at the empty space left behind before he sighed, and started back towards the castle.

Everyone else was still talking to Patton when he arrived.

“Where’s Roman?” Virgil asked instantly.

Janus sighed. “He thought Patton wouldn’t want to see him and went back to his room.”

“Oh no, kiddo,” Patton said, from where he was leaning slightly on Logan. “I should—”

“Get some food and rest,” Janus cut off instantly. “If you want to talk to him, fine, but you’ve been here for far too long and you need some time to rest first.”

“I had food,” Patton said, standing up a little straighter, and gesturing to a stack of plates in the now-almost-vanished-cage that Janus hadn’t noticed before. “Food started appearing a couple days in.”

“Wait, you didn’t always have food?” Logan asked, sounding very concerned.

Janus thought back for a moment and remembered the time in the kitchen when Roman had muttered about hoping that Patton had enough food. He supposed that made sense.

“Regardless,” he said, before Patton could reply. “You need rest. Come on, we’re going back to the commons.”

“Janus is right,” Virgil said.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

“Fuck off. I’ll go talk to Roman. You go rest.”

“Well, okay,” Patton said hesitantly. “If you’re sure.”

“Yes,” everyone else said simultaneously. Virgil sunk out, likely to Roman’s room, and Janus crossed over to Patton’s other side so he could hold on to him as he and Logan both sunk them out into the commons.

Patton seemed to melt a little in relief as they all appeared, and Logan immediately let go with a quick call that he was going to get Patton some water and some hot soup.

Janus helped Patton over to the couch until he was sitting down, and then stood up himself, not quite sure what else to do.

“Janus?” Patton said quietly.

Janus raised an eyebrow to show he was listening.

“Do you think I should talk to Roman?”

“Later,” Janus said instantly. “After you’ve rested.”

“But yes.”

Janus paused, and sighed. “Yes.”

Patton nodded a little.

A second later, Logan came back with a cup of water and soup and turned to Janus. “Thank you very much for your help this week, Janus,” he said. “I can take it from here.”

Janus blinked a little in surprise. “What?”

“Well, I assume you’d want to change clothes, and probably let Remus know what has happened,” Logan said. He hesitated. “Although I doubt he’ll care too much.”

“I…” Janus glanced back over at Patton, who was looking at him with a surprisingly knowing look.

Janus felt a spike of panic and decided very quickly that he didn’t want to alert Virgil.

“Right. Of course. I’m certainly glad Patton is safe,” Janus said, and sunk out.

…

He lasted about two hours.

It had been late at night when they found Patton, meaning by the time he came back everyone was already asleep, which only contributed to the feeling that he had waited far too long.

Patton was gone from the living room when he appeared, and Janus worried for a second that he was already asleep too, when he heard a door shut in the hallway, and he walked over to see Patton coming out of Roman’s room.

“Patton?”

Patton yelped and jumped a little, spinning around. “Oh. Hey, Janus. I was just talking to Roman.”

“Is he alright?”

“He’s still really guilty, but I think I managed to convince him that I’m not mad,” Patton said with a sigh. “And I checked on Thomas. He seems to be feeling alright, at least right now.” Patton turned back to face him. “What are you doing back here?”

“Oh,” Janus said, and immediately blanked on anything he could say. “I just… wanted to check on…”

Patton raised an eyebrow. “…Me?” he said slowly.

“No!” Janus exclaimed. “No, I was just… making my nightly rounds! Which I have always done! To check if anything was wrong!”

Patton smiled, and Janus was done for. “I see. Well, I think I know of something that’s wrong,” he said.

Janus swallowed. “Ah. And what might that be?”

Patton walked further forward until he was less than a foot from Janus. “I know of two sides both desperately in need of a cuddle pile,” he said.

“I… can’t imagine who the second side is,” Janus said weakly. “But if one of them is you, I… am happy to help.”

Patton laughed brightly, and Janus almost melted where he stood. And then, to his horror, Patton leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Just give me a hug, Janus,” Patton whispered, and Janus pulled Patton to him immediately.

Patton laughed again and wrapped his arms around him, and they both sat down right there as Janus held Patton tighter.

“You weren’t here,” he whispered. “You were just gone and it was awful. Are you okay?”

“I will be,” Patton said just as softly. “Are you okay?”

“Well, I’ve definitely had a fantastic week. No world-changing crises or revelations here.”

“Aww, Janus,” Patton said, squeezing Janus tightly. “I missed you too.”

Janus wasn’t quite sure if he could say anything to that, so he just scooped Patton up and took them both back to the other set of commons. “Let’s watch a movie,” he said.

“Now?” Patton asked in surprise.

“Yes.”

He didn’t hear any arguments, so Janus put in Patton’s favorite movie and headed back over to the couch to wrap Patton in his arms again.

Patton seemed to very quickly grow content with that, and Janus wasn’t even going to try to pretend he wasn’t loving it too.

Patton started commenting on the morals of the antagonist in the first scene, and Janus gave a moment to appreciate things returning to normal before he replied. He definitely hadn’t missed this.

…

Remus decided not to comment when he found Janus and Patton both asleep in each other’s arms on the couch the next morning, aside from snapping his fingers and hanging up a large sign in front of the TV that read “Congratulations on Smashing the Hulk!”

He was sure they would appreciate it.


End file.
